Weekday morning anchor Marc Fein is exiting NBC5
01/02/19 12:49 PM
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
Veteran anchor Marc Fein, who joined Fort Worth-based NBC5 in 2011 and has been co-anchoring the station’s weekday early morning newscasts, will be leaving the station shortly.
Fein confirmed through sources that his contract is not being renewed. He arrived at NBC5 from Turner Sports and initially co-anchored the 5 and 6 p.m. weekday newscasts before being moved to mornings in January 2014 alongside longtime incumbent Deborah Ferguson. Fein replaced Mark Hayes, who was let go after less than two years opposite Ferguson.
NBC5 management, which announces arrivals to the station, had nothing to say on Fein’s status Wednesday. Vice president of programming Brian Hocker said via email that “we’re not going to comment on personnel or contract issues per usual.”
Asked if he could even confirm that Fein will be leaving NBC5, Hocker said, “We do not have a comment.”
Fein, 51, had a gainful career in sports broadcasting before joining NBC5. He has hosted the NBA network’s NBA Gametime Live, NASCAR on TNT and TBS’ presentations of college football and baseball games. Before arriving at Turner Sports, Fein was a sports anchor-reporter for D-FW’s Fox4 and also hosted pre-game shows for the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars. He’s a 1991 graduate of the University of Miami, with a bachelor’s degree in communications.
NBC5 lately has had serious ratings problems in the early mornings, particular during the most-watched 6 a.m. hour. In the November “sweeps,” the station ran third in total viewers and last among 25-to-54-year-olds (the main advertiser target audience for news programming). The year-to-year shortfalls respectively were 20,703 and 25,065 viewers, easily the largest in competition with Fox4, TEGNA8 and CBS11.
Fein was at his regular 6 a.m. post on Wednesday, Jan. 2nd. His departure date could not immediately be determined.
Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net